Entre vécu personnel et histoire politique, c’est une lecture en deux temps et  à double entrée, qui mêlera photographie documentaire, reportage et une démarche plasticienne.

 

Mon père a été une victime directe du gouvernement mexicain des années 90. Dépossédé illégalement de son entreprise pendant le développement du système douanier en vue de l’augmentation des échanges avec le nord, il était suivi et écouté, a fait un infarctus et a tout perdu à l’époque.

 

Après quelques années en France, de 2003 à 2009, je suis revenue vivre au Mexique suite au décès de mes parents et y ai vécu six années pendant lesquelles j’ai vu revenir au pouvoir les mêmes responsables politiques des années 90.

Durant ce temps là, j’ai pu observer au quotidien les conséquences de leurs actions et décisions : une nette augmentation de la corruption, de l’insécurité et de la violence. Cela m’a replongé dans des peurs liées à mon passé et à mon histoire familiale et m’a donné envie de raconter l’histoire de mon père ainsi que celle des gens que j’ai connus, croisés, rencontrés.

 

Articulant des récits personnels, des témoignages, mes propres souvenirs, des photographies et des images d’archive, je cherche à montrer comment ces histoires personnelles se confrontent au «réel» et notamment à la médiatisation du «réel». 

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An episode that I have identified as a turning point in the contemporary political history of Mexico, as well as in my family's history, and which is the central pillar of this work, was the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which took place in 1992, under the presidency of Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

Facing the pressure exerted by the United States for the modernization of the Mexican customs' system, a call for projects was launched the same year to authorize the provision of electronic data processing services and other services related to customs authorities. In July 1992, the decision was made in favor of a company called Integradora de Servicios SA de CV (ISSA), created by the Canadian company Shl System House and the company Gervassi Clark, SA de CV, property of my father, Angel Rolando Gervassi Santiago. That's how he fell into a very complex and carefully orchestrated trap, that almost costed him his life and that caused damages to the treasury for more than 10 billion pesos.

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The signing of NAFTA had devastating consequences on my family, but also on the Mexican society and economy. Several changes have been observed since the implementation of this agreement: the economic crisis and the devaluation of the Mexican peso, the increase in drug trafficking, immigration and poverty, the expansion of the “maquiladoras” industry and the increase of feminicides in Ciudad Juárez, the destruction of the agricultural industry, etc.

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With this project, rooted in the intimate and in the political history of Mexico, I would like to take a look at the impact that the signing of the NAFTA has had within the family and, on a wider scale, within the Mexican society.

To do this, I would like to review the media narratives of NAFTA and give a voice to different individuals of the Mexican society in this re-reading.

 

Intermingling personal stories, testimonies, my own memories, archival images and photographs, I would like to show how these personal stories confront reality and in particular the mediatization of the "real", to propose an intermedial device which, as a whole and through heterogeneous and contradictory perspectives, participates in the transmission of collective history while questioning its processes of fabrication and the power of its representations.

L’Amour Amor will combine documentary photography, reportage and a plastic artist approach.

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Projet soutenu par l'Institut Français et la Région d'Occitanie.

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